Return to Büyükada

Last week, I went to Büyükada for the afternoon with friends. I had been in a similar situation 1 year ago, but with different friends. I try to be grateful for the good times, but sometimes I long for them or others like them. It has been my mission to create new memories here in İstanbul- to replace or at least compliment the old ones of times and circumstances that will not repeat themselves. Took a picture from this point last year.
Büyükada was healthy, painful, refreshing, and relaxing. With my mind all over the place, I took a walk alone and called a good friend. "Guess where I am?" I asked. The island where we came together to say goodbye 1 year ago, was not what she guessed. At that time, we were four people with four slightly different directions to go, each containing an uncertain future. That was then, and I'll have to come to better terms with it. In the now of last week, I met friends of friends, including a resident of the island. When I asked about her unusual first name, she explained that she is Jewish. I asked her some questions about hers and her family's views regarding Jewish-Muslim mixed dating and marriage. You may be wondering, as she was wondering, why I wanted to know. My friend who was with me on Büyükada 1 year ago, just wrote a masters thesis on the subject. Anyway, she answered my questions and I enjoyed the discussion that ensued.

I took a picture just before leaving the island, as the sun was setting. I hoped then that it would stand to represent forgetting someday the parts of my past that contain and cause pain. The scene and the night air that followed was therapy enough.